Kimberly Roe

Education: O’Gorman High School; University of San Diego, bachelor’s degree in mathematics

Future: She begins a 15-month training program in the fall to become one of the first female officers to serve aboard a Navy submarine.

USD GRADUATION NUMBERS

Undergraduate: 1,175 degrees to be awarded Sunday.

Graduate: 650 master’s degrees and doctorates to be awarded today.

Law: 395 degrees awarded May 15.

ROTC: At a ceremony Friday, 54 ROTC members were commissioned as military officers, with 39 becoming Navy ensigns and 15 becoming Marine Corps second lieutenants.

After graduating with honors from the University of San Diego on Sunday, Kimberly Roe will join a pioneering group of 24 women training to be the first females serving aboard submarines in the Navy.

By 2012, the women are expected to begin serving on four guided-missile attack submarines and ballistic-missile submarines based at Kings Bay, Ga., and Bangor, Wash.

On Friday, Roe, 22, was commissioned as a Navy officer in a ceremony culminating her ROTC career at the university. She downplayed her role as a trailblazer in expanding women’s roles in the military.

“I’m honestly hoping that it’s not going to be a big deal,” she said. “I’m more concerned about doing a good job as a newly commissioned officer than the fact that I’m a woman.”

Roe, who grew up in Sioux Falls, S.D., distinguished herself at USD by earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and by winning awards in her major and in Arabic language studies.

Her drive and leadership stood out in the ROTC, said Capt. William Ault, commanding officer.

“She’s quite an impressive student and an outstanding midshipman,” Ault said. “She’ll be an outstanding officer.”

Although she’s not from a military family, Roe said she began thinking about joining the Navy in high school because of its educational and career opportunities. She attended USD on an ROTC scholarship.

Roe’s pending graduation coincided with Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ announcement to Congress in February that the Navy intended to end the ban on women serving on submarines.

The Navy has allowed women on surface ships since 1994, but continued to keep female sailors off submarines because of the cramped quarters, lack of privacy and tours of up to 90 days at sea.

Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, who led the Navy’s task force on integrating women onto submarines, predicted last month that the decision to allow women on submarines will soon seem like a no-brainer.

“We’re going to look back on this four or five years from now, shrug our shoulders and say, ‘What was everybody worrying about?’ ” Bruner said.

Although enlisted sailors make up about 90 percent of a submarine’s 160-member crew, Navy officials decided to begin with female officers to simplify privacy issues.

Each submarine has two alternating crews with 15 officers. Three female officers will be assigned to each crew and share a single stateroom. The officers will share a bathroom equipped with a sign to show whether it’s being used by men or women.